Chapter 1 part 3...

Kassy’s spell went off without a hitch. The wound first stop its ugly weeping, and then began to close, slowly at first, and then more quickly as Kassy concentrated on her chanting. A healer’s ability always amazed me. It was a skill I had not acquired as of yet, but knew that since I have a little extra time (IF I don’t foolishly challenge the Gods too often) it was something I could get... Sweet Goddess granting...

A slight whimper escaped Wolfling, as he moved further away. It was only due to my proximity that I could hear it. Johanish could not have picked it up, even with his training to hear the tumblers of a lock during a thunderstorm. Quite the entertaining thing, if you think of it, really. Here was this strong fighter, gifted with his own set of ‘condition’ bred abilities, who got nervous enough to have the hackles on the back of his neck rise in the face of a healer using their gifts... And all I could do was grin, anymore and he might take an offense to it, and that I would not have done for the world.

It took only minutes for the cleric’s spell to reach its completion, but for one of my nature, time seemed to stretch to a longer portion. It would seem that I will have to find a way around this, if I am actually going to pick up a few healing spells of my own. Yes. Something I will definitely have to look into. If nothing else, casting some healing spells would add to my ability to cover myself and throw off any suspicions. This was something to push to the back of my mind for now. Survival must be the key thoughts now.

"OK. I would suggest that when you are up to it, Questar, you and Johanish set a few snares and some ‘minors’ traps leaving the usual markings for us to avoid them. Gotorah, we need to set at least one pit by morning. I get the feeling that sunrise will find us in the middle of a slight invasion to our lovely little campsite. Tamlin should be awake and well rested by then..."

"Umm... Zaar," Questar began interrupting me in the process of my suggesting possible stratagems. "Did you forget one minor detail? Tamlin is still in Vhal-drador’s keep. How is he going to be able to help?"

"Damn. I knew there was something I forgot to mention," I said with a mischievous grin. "While you were napping, I took it upon myself to take a little trip into a cellar... Or should I say a cell. A long story short, Tamlin is fine and resting with his..."

"Uh. Sir," Brin’s timing seemed to be impeccable right then. Unfortunately, it was also just the thing needed to pull the members of the Adventurer’s Guild into quick action drawing various and sundry other weapons from sheaths, belts and, as for Kassy, her moniker’s namesake, a Soulblade from, what seemed, thin air. Brin, however, pulled something I had not seen, nor thought him capable of doing. Energies crackled around him and it was not magickal in nature. It was psionic, forcing me to take a closer look at Tamlin’s new protégé.

"Everyone take it easy, I would like to introduce you to someone that helped Tamlin, while he was unable to help himself." I walked over to the boy and shook his hand, leading him to the center of the group. "This is Brin. Obviously, he has come to us with a talent of his own, but Tamlin promised him freedom, and we have all taken an oath to uphold another member’s word of honor."

All but Gotorah put their weapons away after my words. Gotorah, being the skeptic of the group kept his battle axe in hand. Interesting combination, actually. A 5 foot tall by 4 foot wide dwarf carrying a battle axe that he could throw like a boomerang, if he so chose. He simply muttered a few unintelligible words, attempting to pass them off as some obscure dialect of his home tongue, which I knew damned good and well that it wasn’t, and walked away to obviously perform the task given to him. Pitfalls were traps best left to those who knew the earth.

Johanish and Questar, taking their cue from Gotorah, went out to set some traps and snares to frustrate our would-be guests.

*Gentlemen, I would like to deviate a little from usual antics in this.* I sent to all of them. *Allow them an alley of ‘safe passage’ to travel around the encampment...* the mental pause I gave was significant enough to have them each send me mental questions. *Well we are, after all, near a cliff. It should buy us a little time before they figure out exactly what is going on. Gotorah, when they do, fix a little surprise for them to insure they cannot return.* this last earned me a mental snort of acknowledgement.

I took it upon myself to put up magickal barriers and wards here and there, mostly for the purposes of leading these enhanced warriors more directly into the traps the others were setting. Few were actually dangerous, but the magickal energies that would show would make them seem so. This was a little trick I learned some 300 years ago.

We weren’t the only one’s busy. Brin and Kassy seemed to be pretty occupied with whatever it was they were doing. Their conversation about his abilities while she checked through random armament really struck my curiosity. Kassy, while placing arrows at strategic locations for our people with bows, was asking Brin how long has his abilities been with him and other random queries about his abilities. Brin answered in the most stoic fashion her, what seemed to me, never ending questions, without so much as missing a beat.

"My abilities awakened within me early. I found I could move things with my mind, and knew to practice. Vhal-drador’s minions came for me in the night, slaughtering my family and forcing me to serve him. He found that my abilities did not work with his slave bands, so I was allowed to roam without them, Unseen Servants following my movements as surely as any chains, blocking my way through certain areas of his keep. I practiced the entire time, watching as my abilities grew. I am no fighter, nor a mage of any caliber (he is a mage also?), such as Tamlin, who is awake by the way, but I knew that this was my one time to fight. I had to. Vhal-drador would have surely seen to my death had he any real clue as to how strong I have gotten."

Seeing Kassandra’s question clearly in her eyes, he answered her before she could ask it. "I have other gifts. I can sense things, tap into peoples emotions and, if I know the person well enough, I can make out their thoughts as surely as I read the question in your eyes." Cocky. I liked that about him. He wasn’t arrogant by any means, but definitely knew his abilities and what they could and could not do for him.

"I will offer up this theory to you," Kassandra started. "I think your abilities stem from the elven blood you hold in your veins. Did you never wonder why you were more slight than the others in your family? Your facial features more angular? You are what we call a ‘throw back’..." Seeing the look in his eyes, Kassandra headed off his rant and his growing ire with her last statement. "This does not mean that you are second rate anything, nor does it mean that you are a lesser being. Throw back simply means that some of the characteristics you yourself have are actually that of the elven element that was in your family. You are more elven in your make-up than any other member of your family. Do you understand?"

It was clear in his relaxing posture that Brin had picked up the theory and grasped it wholeheartedly. Brin had finally gotten some of the answers that had been lacking to him living in Vhal-drador’s keep.

"And just how strong are your psionic abilities, Brin?" Tamlin asked peaking out of his tent. Kassandra rushed to him and hugged him with enough force to push the air out of his lungs. "I am glad to see you as well, Kassy, however, you are doing me serious harm," Tamlin’s last statement was made in the spirit we all knew him for. A joker. This only served to alleviate my mind as well. The Adventurer’s Guild, my own set of companions, was whole once more. Now... How in the Abyss am I going to tell them about me in such a way that Kassandra’s clerical duties won’t cause us to become steadfast foes? This was my own personal dilemma and we would have to see when I find answers.

For now, while the others finished preparations, I would rest and replenish my spells and magickal energies. These were the final preparations I would make. The only thing left to do, that is. So I slept. I slept long and hard, taking a quick measure of what I was going to do, and what I have done already, despite the fact that I have a goodly amount of power, it is NOT unlimited...

Sleep came as it generally does for every living being, and despite what you think, vampires, though undead, were once living beings. Those of us who wish to remain amongst our living relatives perpetuate the myth of ‘life’. Yet during the times of sleep, even our minds are still active. So we dream. We dream our hopes, our futures, our loves lost and our hearts most aspired desires. I was no exception to this rule, though I wished more often than not, that the myth was true in this aspect.

Goddess the dream...

End Chapter 1 part 3

Written By: Belfazaar Ashantison

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